Carla Lane funeral to take place in liverpool | Daily Mail Online Next 'You didn't know whether to laugh or cry': Stars pay tribute to the work of Carla Lane who wrote Bread and The Liver Birds as they join family at her funeral Liverpool television comedy writer Carla Lane died at a nursing home aged 87, at the end of last month Her sitcoms, including Butterflies, Bread and The Liver Birds, established Lane as one of the best-loved writers Today, her funeral service took place at 2pm at Liverpool Cathedral. She leaves two sons, Nigel and Colin Carla Lane obituary: celebrated writer of TV sitcoms | Television & radio | The Guardian Television Carla Lane obituary: celebrated writer of TV sitcoms Comedy writer known as much for her animal rights activism as for television hits including The Liver Birds, Butterflies and Bread Carla Lane at home in Sussex, 1999.

Photograph: Murray Sanders/Daily Mail/Rex/Shutterstock Wednesday 1 June 2016 06.59 EDT Last modified on Friday 4 November 2016 07.48 EDT Share on Messenger Close One day Carla Lane saw her cleaner run the Hoover over a wasp that was crawling across the carpet of her Liverpool home. She was scandalised. “How could you?” she exploded. In her 2006 autobiography, Someday I’ll Find Me, Lane recounted what happened next. She emptied the vacuum cleaner bag on to some newspaper. “And there it was, alive and well – a little blob of dust with legs. I brushed it down and set it on the floor and let it go into a dark corner to recover.” She was so moved by the episode that she wrote an article for the local radio station called Love Me, Love My Wasp. It was one of her first published works. Lane, who has died aged 87, went on to become one of Britain’s most celebrated comedy writers for television, best known for her sitcoms The Liver Birds, Butterflies and Bread, but she was almost as well known for her animal rights activism.

Her first hit series, The Liver Birds, was about the lives and loves of posh Sandra (in the first series played by Pauline Collins, later by Nerys Hughes) and her flatmate, Beryl (played by Polly James). The weekly sitcom, which ran from 1969 to 1978, began with a riddle in song: “What’s got four legs, walks peculiar, Talks with all the choicest words? What’s got four arms, loves to grab yer? Answer is two Liver Birds.” Pinterest Jean Boht, centre, as Nellie Boswell, head of the devoutly Catholic Liverpool family in Carla Lane’s Bread, 1986. Photograph: Allstar/BBC During the early 1970s, Lane divided her time between London and Liverpool. She was by then married with kids, but having a surreptitious liaison with a TV producer to whom she referred as “Him”.

This relationship formed the basis of her next successful sitcom, Butterflies (1978-83), starring Wendy Craig as a middle-aged, suburban housewife, Ria, as she mused on the shortcomings of her life with her husband (Geoffrey Palmer) and two sons, and battled temptations with Leonard (Bruce Montague). “I wanted to write a comedy about a woman contemplating adultery,” she said. Lane went further than Ria and divorced in 1980. “My husband was lovely,” she said in one interview. “He deserved better than me. I spoiled everything for him. It’s just ... I have to be in love.” She continued the relationship with the TV producer for many years after the divorce, though never lived with him. “We meet and we still act as though we’re doing something wrong,” she said. In 1981, she wrote the comedy Solo starring Felicity Kendal, about a thirtysomething woman finding out her live-in boyfriend is having an affair and reinventing her life after their split.

But Lane’s biggest post-Butterflies hit returned her to her Scouse roots with Bread (1986-91), about a Liverpool family scamming and surviving in Thatcher’s Britain. Lane imagined in Bread a family in broken Britain struggling to make their way without paid employment, but surviving through benefits fraud and selling stolen goods – like Alan Bleasdale’s drama The Boys from the Black Stuff, but with more laughs and greater sentimentality about family life. The twist was that this family, the Boswells (whom Lane once said she imagined were related to a family of the same name in The Liver Birds), was devoutly Catholic, somehow making the ethics of their faith fit with the new demands of being downtrodden in post-industrial Britain. It proved to be Lane’s last big TV success and was watched at its peak by 26m British viewers. Pinterest ‘I wanted to write about a woman contemplating adultery’: Wendy Craig as Ria, with from left, Andrew Hall, Geoffrey Palmer and Nicholas Lyndhurst, in Carla Lane’s Butterflies, 1978.

Photograph: Allstar/BBC She was born Romana Barrack in Liverpool to DeVinci, a merchant seaman, and his wife, Ivy. She later took the name Carla Lane, she said, because she was shy and didn’t want people to know she’d written The Liver Birds. She did not do well at school. “Romana Barrack is a poor scholar – she suffers from lack of concentration,” read one report. “She does however get on well with the class and has a keen sense of humour.” A key figure in her life was her grandfather John Barrack, an RSPCA superintendent who campaigned for separate holds for livestock on ships, and Lane’s earliest memories revolved around animals: she would not eat meat, and rescued everything from dogs and cats to spiders and earwigs. “I drove my mother around the bend,” she told the Observer in 2008 . After leaving school, she worked at a baby linen shop for £1 a week and later on the cosmetics counter in Bon Marché, the upmarket Merseyside department store. She met her husband, Eric Hollins, when she fell over in front of him at the local ice rink.

“I am still not sure whether or not the feeling I felt for Eric was love, as we know it, or the need to escape from all other ties and set out on a life of my own,” she wrote later. Before she was out of her teens, Lane was married with two sons, Carl and Nigel, and writing while her family was asleep. At the Liverpool Writers’ Club she met Myra Taylor, who would co-create The Liver Birds with her. She and Taylor would sit in the cafe at the Adelphi hotel writing scripts. It was one of these, featuring a dachshund complaining about pavements being too high, that gave the duo their big break. Pinterest Nerys Hughes, left, and Polly James in Lane’s first big hit, The Liver Birds, 1973 Photograph: Allstar/BBC They sent the script to Michael Mills, the BBC’s head of comedy. Mills called them in for an interview in London, and told them that while the dog script was funny, what he really wanted was a sitcom about two young women sharing a bedsit. Lane and Taylor got the train back to Lime Street, giddy that they had been commissioned to write a television series. The result was The Liver Birds.

The BBC didn’t much care for the first scripts, and so the sitcom producer and director Sydney Lotterby helped to hone their efforts. Taylor dropped out after the second series, though the two women still collaborated on scripts for the Sid James and Diana Coupland sitcom Bless This House (1971-76). By the time Bread was topping TV ratings, Lane had found another vocation as animal rights protester. She had made like-minded friends in the photographer Linda McCartney and the singer Chrissie Hynde. She wrote a walk-on part in Bread for McCartney in which Mrs Boswell asks Linda: “Has your chap got a job?” Yes,” replies Linda. “Sort of.” Lane became a leading voice in the Protesters’ Animal Information Network, which fights the export of live animals for slaughter abroad. She was often to be seen armed with a megaphone leading protests at ports including Shoreham and Felixstowe. In 1989, she was appointed OBE for her TV writing but returned it in 2002 in protest after Brian Cass, managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences, the animal testing laboratories, was honoured for services to medical research.

Until 2009, she ran an animal sanctuary at her house, Broadhurst Manor, in West Sussex, where 13 staff took care of 800 animals. After selling the manor, she returned to Liverpool and there campaigned against her native city’s leading annual sporting event, the Grand National. For all her animal rights activism, she never gave up on writing, but feared the BBC had given up on her. She told Hello! magazine: “I don’t know the people at the BBC any more. It’s full of young girls with short skirts and large breasts.” In 2013, though, she said she was writing a comedy drama about young Scouse mothers. Why Liverpool again, she was asked? “It’s where I was born and I understand it best of all. It will be about a street, that I can tell you, because everything that happens in life happens in a Liverpool street. Instead of it all being sweet and nice, I want to give the truth about what we feel about babies.” She remained, to the end, a committed defender of animal rights. “I’ve got some lovely friends who are carnivores – that’s what I call them,” she said once.

“But I know I think differently than most. I’m not putting myself above others with my thoughts. I’m just different.” She is survived by her sons. • Carla Lane (Romana Barrack), writer and animal rights campaigner, born 5 August 1928; died 31 May 2016 One of Britain’s most successful scriptwriters, Lane went on from phenomenal success in TV to open an animal sanctuary in Sussex Published: 31 May 2016 In the world of 1980s television, female characters and writers were everywhere. What’s gone wrong? Published: 1 Jun 2016 The award-winning writer of the Liver Birds and Bread, Carla Lane, on why she's selling her animal sanctuary Published: 15 Nov 2008 Corporation dusts down classic sitcoms as part of BBC Worldwide campaign. By Leigh Holmwood Published: 2 Oct 2009 Butterflies (TV Series 1978–1983) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This!

Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Ria, a happily married suburban housewife, reaches the age where she feels as if life is passing her by. Being taken for granted by her butterfly collecting dentist husband doesn't help. So... See full summary » Stars: The thought of cooking for Christmas frightens Ria though she is cheered to meet Leonard again, though they have a row. Back home this preys on her mind and she burns the pizza and freaks out at the ... 8.1 The boys have the opportunity to buy a window cleaning business but Ria is still depressed and goes to church for guidance. When she comes out she finds Leonard has put his diary in her car. She ... 7.9 Six months have elapsed and Ria meets Leonard in the park. They hug, he says he loves her and wants to carry on with her. Meanwhile Ben is having lunch with a widowed friend Amanda. She seems to ...

7.5 a list of 30 titles created 04 Oct 2012 a list of 31 titles created 02 Jun 2013 a list of 864 titles created 07 Dec 2014 a list of 35 titles created 10 months ago a list of 218 titles created 10 months ago Search for " Butterflies " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Audrey fforbes-Hamilton is sad when her husband dies but is shocked when she realises that she has to leave Grantleigh Manor where her family has lived forever. The new owner is Richard De ... See full summary » Stars: Penelope Keith, Peter Bowles, Angela Thorne Martin is a committee man. He has numerous schemes and committees organised around the neighbourhood. He is so obsessive about every detail of everything he does he is driving his long ...

See full summary » Stars: Richard Briers, Penelope Wilton, Peter Egan The series followed the wavering relationship between two ex-lovers, Penny Warrender, a secretary for an advertising firm, and Vincent Pinner, an ex ice cream salesman turned turf ... See full summary » Stars: Paul Nicholas, Jan Francis, Sylvia Kay Wolfie Smith is an unemployed dreamer from Tooting London, a self proclaimed Urban Guerilla who aspires to be like his hero Che Guevara. Leading a small group called the Tooting Popular ... See full summary » Stars: Robert Lindsay, Mike Grady, Hilda Braid The perils of "escaping the rat race" and dropping out of society - to start a farm in Surbiton (and to drive Margo nuts). Stars: Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith A rather naive, middle-class man is admitted to a hospital ward and finds that he is sharing it with a working-class layabout and an upper-class hypochondriac. All three of them cause headaches for the hospital staff. Stars: James Bolam, Peter Bowles, Christopher Strauli Comic goings on in this series set in an English holiday camp called Maplins.

The title comes from the camp's greeting, which the staff are meant to say with enthusiasm but all too often ... See full summary » Stars: Paul Shane, Ruth Madoc, Jeffrey Holland The comic adventures of a group of misfits who form an extremely bad concert party touring the hot and steamy jungles of Burma entertaining the troops during World War II. Stars: Windsor Davies, Melvyn Hayes, Donald Hewlett The Liverpool-based Boswell family are experts at exploiting the system to get by in life. Despite the fact that none of the Boswells are officially employed, they manage to live a fairly ... See full summary » Stars: Jean Boht, Nick Conway, Jonathon Morris Jacko is a house painter who "appreciates" women, he sees the best in each one of them and they in turn, like him. Will he find true love ? Will he settle down as he gets older ? Stars: Karl Howman, Mike Walling, Jackie Lye Bless This House centres on life in Birch Avenue, Putney, where travelling stationery salesman Sid Abbott (Sidney James) and his wife Jean (Diana Coupland) live with their teenagers: Mike (...

See full summary » Stars: Sidney James, Diana Coupland, Sally Geeson Now a qualified chef, Robin from "Man About the House" (1973) sets up home with his girlfriend, and a business with his girlfriend's father. Stars: Richard O'Sullivan, Tessa Wyatt, Tony Britton Edit Storyline Ria, a happily married suburban housewife, reaches the age where she feels as if life is passing her by. Being taken for granted by her butterfly collecting dentist husband doesn't help. So, when the opportunity for an affair comes up she tries to decide whether she loves her husband enough to be faithful to him. Written by Dave Smith <dave@stat.colostate.edu> 10 November 1978 (UK) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia At the beginning of the first series, Ben is said to be 48 years old; Geoffrey Palmer was actually 51 at that time. Ria's age is not specifically mentioned, but she worries about having looked like 50 - ten years before she should; Wendy Craig was 44.

Leonard has a birthday in the first series and turns 45; Bruce Montague was 39. See more » Quotes (Vancouver, Canada) – See all my reviews Even 20-odd years after the fact (and with it's late-70s sexual revolutionism looking humorously dated these days), Carla Lane's 'Butterflies' remains one of the freshest and funniest sitcoms Britain ever produced. The story itself is relentlessly simple -- a stifled housewife's yearning for more in her life is complicated by a distantly ironic husband, two sex-crazed still-at-home sons, and the romantic attention of a wealthy playboy whose desire revs up the more undesirable she feels. But it's not the plot that makes 'Butterflies' great so much as it is the opportunity that that plot gives Lane to explore Ria Parkinson's world as it slowly collapses around her, and it's impossible not to see a little bit of oneself in the sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-sobering struggles of Lane's memorable characters as they attempt to survive the small anguishes of day-to-day life. Smart writing and great performances all around.

A few years back, 'Butterflies' would show up in late-night rotation on PBS in the states and Canada; if it does again, catch it. 18 of 20 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes R.I.P. Carla Lane, creator/writer of ‘Liver Birds’, ‘Butterflies’ and ‘Bread’ | Tellyspotting R.I.P. Carla Lane, creator/writer of ‘Liver Birds’, ‘Butterflies’ and ‘Bread’ On: June 1, 2016, By: Bill Young , In: Comedy , No Comment Carla Lane, one of the first female television sitcom writers in an era dominated by her male counterparts, has died at the age of 87. Through her series, The Liver Birds, Butterflies and Bread, Lane gave women a voice while delving into serious subjects not normally dealt with in situation comedy. Her four decades of comedy established her as one of Britain’s top sitcom writing talents at the time.

Lane first became known for The Liver Birds, a sitcom which focused on the lives of two women (Polly Lane and Pauline Collins) who shared a flat together in Liverpool, co-writing and creating the program with her friend and fellow Liverpudlian Myra Taylor. Her next sitcom, Butterflies, which aired from 1978 to 1983 and starred Geoffrey Palmer and Wendy Craig, focused on the lives of the Parkinson family and helped launch the career of actor Nicholas Lyndhurst. Lane then created and wrote Bread, which focused on the working class Boswell family as they struggled through the city’s high unemployment and poor prospects in the late 1980s. It aired for seven series between 1986 and 1991 In 2009, we had the great good fortune of talking with Carla Lane for the PBS’ special, Behind the Britcom: From Script to Screen. She talked about ‘making it as a female writer in a male dominated world, the key to good comedy writing, her early script submission of Butterflies to the BBC and, here, her love for series star, Geoffrey Palmer.

Lane, who was born in Liverpool, followed up her successful television comedy career by being very involved in animal rights activism. R.I.P. Carla Lane. Thanks for the past decades of laughter and the decades yet to come. Carla Lane - IMDb IMDb Writer | Producer | Soundtrack Carla Lane was born on August 5, 1928 in West Derby, Liverpool, Lancashire, England as Romana Barrack. She was a writer and producer, known for The Liver Birds (1969), Butterflies (1978) and Bless This House (1971). She was married to Arthur Hollins. She died on May 31, 2016 in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. See full bio » Born: BBC - Comedy - People A-Z - Carla Lane Carla Lane Carla Lane Born and raised in Liverpool, Carla Lane is a successful sitcom writer whose popular series throughout the late 1960s-1990s proved favourites among female viewers. Her first sitcom 'The Liver Birds', co-written with Myra Taylor, spanned 10 years and followed the romantic adventures of two young women sharing a bedsit in Liverpool.

The show established Lane's distinctive writing-style, which explored sexual and personal relationships from a woman's experience and point of view. Her next series 'Butterflies' presented an intimate portrait of middle-aged, suburban housewife Ria (Wendy Craig) as she mused on the shortcomings of her 'ordinary' life and battled with adulterous temptations. Subsequent BBC sitcoms 'Solo', 'The Mistress', 'Leaving', and 'I Woke Up One Morning' struggled for critical approval, perhaps due to Lane's subtle, anecdotal and often poignant approach to comedy, and their exploration of serious controversial issues such as infidelity, divorce and alcoholism. However, Lane's return to a Liverpool setting for the colourful slice of working-class life, 'Bread', which revolved around staunchly Catholic matriarch Nellie and her unemployed children, put her firmly back in the mainstream. Appearances by Carla Lane Carla Lane dies aged 87 at Mossley Hill nursing home in Liverpool | Daily Mail Online comments The creator of the 1980s sitcom Bread, Carla Lane, has died at the age of 87.

The television writer, who also wrote BBC's Butterflies and co-wrote The Liver Birds, passed away at Stapely Care Home in her home town of Liverpool earlier today. Her family paid tribute to their 'darling Carla' who 'brought Liverpool to life'. Scroll down for video Passed away: The creator of the 1980s sitcom Bread, Carla Lane (pictured), has died at the age of 87 The television writer, who also wrote BBC's Butterflies and co-wrote The Liver Birds, passed away at Stapely Care Home in her home town of Liverpool earlier today. Her family paid tribute to their 'darling Carla' In a statement they said: 'With heavy hearts we said goodbye to our darling Carla today. 'But with smiles on our faces we also take this opportunity to reflect on her incredible achievements, all of which make us so unbelievably proud to be part of her family. 'We were very lucky that her quick wit, determination and passion brought Liverpool to life on screen for others to share.' RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Lane, born Romana Barrack, became a household name through her hit series, having rose to fame with The Liver Birds and Bread, both set in Liverpool.

She was also known for penning Eighties BBC Two sitcoms The Last Song and The Mistress and became one of the most highly paid TV scriptwriters of her generation. Much of her work focused on women's lives - with characters ranging from frustrated housewives to working class matriarchs. The Liver Birds starred Pauline Collins, Polly James and Nerys Hughes as single women sharing a flat, hitting the dating scene and dealing with life's ups and downs. Bread, which followed the lives of the Boswell family (pictured) in the Liverpool neighbourhood of Dingle, aired for seven series between 1986 and 1991 The comedy TV writer (pictured left), who penned The Liver Birds (right) was also known as an animal rights activist and did a lot of work for animal welfare charities, including the Carla Lane Animals in Need Sanctuary The Liver Birds starred Pauline Collins, Polly James and Nerys Hughes as single women sharing a flat and dealing with life's ups and downs.

Lane (left) is pictured with Hughes, James and co-writer Myra Taylor It ran from 1969 to 1978 before returning briefly in 1996 and made famous the line: '"You dancing?", "You asking?", "I'm asking!", "I'm dancing!"' Bread, which followed the lives of the Boswell family in the Liverpool neighbourhood of Dingle, aired for seven series between 1986 and 1991. Lane continued writing into the 1990s and produced as well as wrote the BBC series Luv in 1993. The comedy TV writer was also a keen animal rights activist and had an animal rescue centre named after her three years ago near Liverpool. Fran Ellis, founder and trustee at the Carla Lane Animals in Need Sanctuary in Melling, Merseyside, paid tribute to a 'champion of animal welfare'. She said: 'Carla was our friend but above all she was a passionate friend and ally to abused and abandoned animals.

Lane transformed her home in West Sussex into a sanctuary for a variety of animals - looking after rescued farm animals, homeless cats and dogs and injured wildlife Lane was also a close friend of Sir Paul McCartney's late wife Linda (pictured together). She once described their friendship as like that of 'identical twins' 'The world of animal welfare will be all the poorer for the loss of such a talented individual. 'We changed the name of our charity to recognise the work done by this special lady, her name will live on in all we do.' Lane transformed her home in West Sussex into a sanctuary for a variety of animals - looking after rescued farm animals, homeless cats and dogs and injured wildlife. CARLA LANE'S FAMILY PAY TRIBUTE 'With heavy hearts we said goodbye to our darling Carla today. 'But with smiles on our faces we also take this opportunity to reflect on her incredible achievements, all of which make us so unbelievably proud to be part of her family. 'We were very lucky that her quick wit, determination and passion brought Liverpool to life on screen for others to share.' Ms Ellis said the writer and activist had moved back to her home town because she was unable to continue her work in West Sussex due to ill health.

She said: 'Carla's sons Nigel and Carl gave her the greatest support and were determined that she would be able to carry on doing the work she loved so much. Saving the lives of vulnerable animals.' Lane received an OBE for services to writing in 1989 but returned it to Tony Blair in 2002 in disgust at animal cruelty. In 1995, she was given a Royal Television Society award for her Outstanding Contribution to British Television. Lane was also a close friend of Sir Paul McCartney's late wife Linda. She once described their friendship as like that of 'identical twins'. Lane told the Observer in 2008: 'We were friendship-struck from moment one. We used to sit on the lawn with our two puppies, kicking leaves, and looking at them.

'We were like two scientists trying to find out why people don't like animals, and what we'd do to them, if we only could.' Television sitcom writer Carla Lane dies, aged 87 - BBC News BBC News Television sitcom writer Carla Lane dies, aged 87 31 May 2016 Close share panel Media captionNick Conway, who played Billy Boswell in the sitcom Bread, pays tribute to Carla Lane Television writer Carla Lane, who created shows including 1980s Liverpool sitcom Bread, has died aged 87. Lane, who was born in Liverpool and later became known for her animal rights activism, also wrote Butterflies and co-wrote The Liver Birds. She died at Stapely Care Home on Tuesday, her family confirmed. They paid tribute to her "quick wit, determination and passion" which "brought Liverpool to life on screen for others to share". The family said: "With heavy hearts we said goodbye to our darling Carla today.

"But with smiles on our faces we also take this opportunity to reflect on her incredible achievements all of which make us so unbelievably proud to be part of her family." Image caption Lane first became known for co-creating and writing The Liver Birds Lane first became known for The Liver Birds, a sitcom which focused on the lives of two women who shared a flat together in Liverpool, co-writing and creating the programme with her friend and fellow Liverpudlian Myra Taylor. The programme aired from 1969 to 1979 and returned for a one-off series in 1996. Her next sitcom, Butterflies, which aired from 1978 to 1983, focused on the lives of the Parkinson family and helped launch the career of actor Nicholas Lyndhurst. Lane then created and wrote Bread, which focused on the working class Boswell family as they struggled through the city's high unemployment and poor prospects in the late 1980s. It aired for seven series between 1986 and 1991. Much of her work focused on women's lives and featured frustrated housewives and working class matriarchs.

She received an OBE for services to writing in 1989 but returned it to the then Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2002 in disgust at animal cruelty. In 1995, Lane was given a Royal Television Society award for her Outstanding Contribution to British Television. Image caption Bread focused on the lives of the Boswell family Lane later became known for looking after hundreds of rescue animals - running an animal sanctuary from her mansion in Horsted Keynes, Sussex, until 2009 - and was a close friend of Sir Paul McCartney's late wife Linda. Speaking to the Observer in 2008 about their friendship , Lane said: "She had a lot of good friends, but we were friendship-struck from moment one. "We used to sit on the lawn with our two puppies, kicking leaves, and looking at them. We were like two scientists trying to find out why people don't like animals, and what we'd do to them, if we only could." Lane also had an animal sanctuary named after her. Fran Ellis, founder and trustee at the Carla Lane Animals in Need Sanctuary in Melling, Merseyside, paid tribute to a "champion of animal welfare".

"We changed the name of our charity to recognise the work done by this special lady. Her name will live on in all we do," she said. BBC entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba said Lane was someone that "understood people and that's why she was able to write them so well... there was a real degree of honesty". Tributes have been paid to the comedy writer on Twitter. Actress Melanie Hill, who played Aveline in Bread and starred in long-running school TV drama Waterloo Road, tweeted : "Very sad to hear #CarlaLane has left us. Writer and creator of many fantastic shows @BBCOne #bread #Aveline." Piers Morgan tweeted : "RIP Carla Lane, who made us all laugh." What are your memories of Carla Lane? Have you met her or worked with her? Email your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk . If you are happy to speak to a BBC journalist, please include a contact telephone number.

You can also contact us in the following ways: WhatsApp: +44 7525 900971 Carla Lane, television scriptwriter – obituary Carla Lane, television scriptwriter – obituary Carla Lane Credit: Daily Mail/ Rex/Shutterstock 31 May 2016 • 8:09pm Carla Lane, who has died aged 87, created The Liver Birds, Butterflies and Bread, classic television sitcoms that crowned her the most successful woman writer in British television comedy; she was also a prominent, if eccentric, campaigner for animal rights. No television writer became more accomplished at lightly rueful reflections on the clichés of English middle-class family life, observed The Daily Telegraph, although it was Carla Lane’s excursion into the netherworld of Liverpool scallywags in Bread (1987-91) that marked her out as a true original.

Having flaunted 1960s popular Liverpool culture in The Liver Birds, she became the first woman to mine television comedy from sexual and personal relationships through a galère of expertly-etched contemporary characters, developed against a backdrop of social issues such as divorce, adultery and, in one of her later works, alcoholism. Sandra (Nerys Hughes) and Carol (Elizabeth Estensen) Credit: Rex Features Unemployment was the underlying theme to Bread, which excited mixed feelings in Carla Lane’s native city with its stereotypical depictions of a sprawling family of streetwise, dole-fiddling, scrounging Scousers. Never one to rely on straightforward wisecracks, Carla Lane infused her scripts with the humour created by sharply-drawn characters and narratives that were more realistic than the typical bland sitcom of the 1950s and 1960s. Although not an instant success, within little more than a year, Bread had climbed to the top of the television ratings.

Freighted with humorous observation and nifty phrase-making, Carla Lane’s scripts drew and unflinching but affectionate portrait of the Boswells (a smarter and more endearing television clan than the cartoon Simpsons, which they partly resembled), to become, as the Telegraph approvingly noted, “as deeply a part of British TV culture as the denizens of Coronation Street”. What kept the series on the boil was Carla Lane’s rich infusion of folksy philosophy and the way the family invariably returned (after often extravagantly aberrant detours) to the values of its redoubtable matriarchal heroine, Nellie Boswell (played by Jean Boht). With more than 11 million viewers, Bread was only trumped in the ratings by EastEnders and Neighbours. Some, however, considered the bittersweet Butterflies (1978-83), with its subversive theme of unfulfilled, adulterous yearnings, to be Carla Lane’s most successful series. She managed to maintain an upbeat mood while exploring overwhelming marital boredom and frustration as her middle-class heroine Ria (Wendy Craig) contemplates an affair.

In 1979, when the format was sold to American television, Carla Lane flew to Los Angeles to work on the script but was gravely disappointed with the pilot and a series was never made. In Solo (1981-82), Felicity Kendal was cast against type after her submissive character in The Good Life to portray a woman seeking a more assertive role as a successful singleton, a quest that Carla Lane handled with a characteristically light touch. But amid the triumphs, there were duds. No Strings (1974), starring Rita Tushingham and Keith Barron, commissioned as a series on the strength of a promising pilot for Comedy Playhouse, guttered after a mere six episodes. The Mistress (1985), again starring Felicity Kendal in the title role, also disappointed, amounting, in the opinion of The Daily Telegraph’s Richard Last, to “a waste of two outstanding talents”. In the same year, Carla Lane’s excursion into darker comedy territory, in I Woke Up One Morning (1985), depicted a group of recovering alcoholics drying out in hospital, a scenario beyond the ken of a teetotal writer, and the show was pulled after two short series.

In Screaming (1992), a trio of angst-ridden woman of a certain age determined to do without men, while each remaining secretly in love with the same one. Critics objected to Carla Lane’s overt, old-fashioned feminism, and after a tabloid mauling, she declined to write a second series. Basically, I’m a loony, but it’s the best way to be with all the horrible things going on in the world Carla Lane Since 1965, Carla Lane had been not only a vegetarian but a vociferous campaigner for animal rights. “I can’t understand why people kill and eat animals,” she insisted. In 1990 she formed an animal trust, Animal Line, with her friend Linda McCartney and the Liverpool-born actress Rita Tushingham.

“Basically, I’m a loony,” she declared, “but it’s the best way to be with all the horrible things going on in the world.” Carla Lane protesting against marchers participating in the Countryside Alliance march for Liberty and Livelihood in London in 2002 Credit: Reuters Carla Lane was born Romana Barrack on August 5 1928, the daughter of DeVinci Barrack, a 19-year-old Italian engineer in the Merchant Navy. She started writing as a child, winning her first award for a school poem published in the Liverpool Echo when she was seven. After an unhappy spell at a Liverpool convent, she left school aged 14 and was working as a nurse when she married three years later. While bringing up her two young sons, she wrote short stories for local newspapers and radio scripts, and joined a writer’s workshop in Liverpool where she met Myra Taylor. With her new friend, Carla Lane wrote a series of bizarre comic sketches Up, Down, All Around, and sent it to the BBC’s head of comedy, Michael Mills. “Give me something I can understand,” he replied. “Or not totally beyond my imagination.” Mills had discerned a hidden comic talent.

The two Liverpool housewives came up with The Liver Birds, about two single Liverpudlian girls, Beryl and Sandra, sharing a flat. After a pilot was floated in the Comedy Playhouse strand in April 1969, a series of four (in black and white) debuted the following July, a week after the first Moon landing. Reaction was muted. A disappointed Mills declined a second series, and Carla Lane’s agents wrote to say that they did not feel she had any potential as a writer. Her response was to lock herself in her room and write, unaided and unedited, a single episode of The Liver Birds. In it Beryl (Polly James) wanted to spend the night with a man, and Sandra (Pauline Collins, later to be replaced by Nerys Hughes) was appalled. Carla Lane sent it to Mills, who replied with a handwritten note: “Six more. By yesterday. Love, Michael” Carla Lane had tapped into the zeitgeist. “This was a breakthrough period for young, single women following centuries of repression,” noted the television writer Mark Lewisohn.

“They had independence, both sexual and financial, and the opportunity to live life as they wanted it, and Carla Lane’s scripts reflected this admirably, as well as sketching the uncertainties and philosophies of being single when everyone else seemd to be married.” Already her ability to conjure “laughs out of pathos” and life’s “little tragedies” as she called them, was becoming apparent. From series three, in 1972, Carla Lane and Myra Taylor wrote unencumbered by script editors, but Myra Taylor left the writing partnership shortly afterwards leaving Carla Lane in sole charge. In all, The Liver Birds ran for 87 episodes, including a revival in 1996. In 1988, the year in which Bread topped the Christmas television ratings, Carla Lane bought the Grade II Zoffany House on the Thames at Strand-on-the-Green, once occupied by the portraitist John Zoffany, for £675,000.

Carla Lane in the grounds of her home and animal sanctuary in Sussex Credit: Rex Features In 1991 she bought the tiny inhabited island of St Tudwal’s East, off Abersoch on the north Wales coast, to rescue its starving wildlife, mainly deer, and built a stone circle there to commemorate the animals who had not survived winter food shortages. At around the same time she moved from London to establish a menagerie at a 50-room Elizabethan manor house in Sussex. An unexpected tax demand in 1993 coincided with the launch of Luv, a new sitcom she had written about a wealthy middle-aged Liverpool couple whose marriage has failed, but it was a feeble effort for a writer with such an impressive track record. Nor did Searching, her 1995 series for ITV, succeed in restoring her early reputation. Latterly she returned to live with her family in Liverpool, wistfully recalling “my rich days” and reflecting on her reversal of fortune. Although she considered a way with words to be her only gift, she was ashamed to admit that she had never read a book from beginning to end.

Appointed OBE in 1989, she returned the insignia in 2002 in protest at the CBE awarded to Brian Cass, head of Huntingdon Life Sciences, which runs laboratories where drugs are tested on animals. She received a handwritten note from the prime minister, Tony Blair, saying she could have it back at any time she cared to ask. She never did. Obsessively opaque about her real age, she invariably rolled forward her birth date by as much as nine years. Carla Lane married Eric Hollins, a naval architect, when she was 17. The couple divorced in 1981, and she is survived by two sons of the marriage.

Carla Lane, born August 5 1928, died May 31 2016 Follow the latest Telegraph Obituaries news READ MORE ABOUT: 'Buttleflies' creator, Carla Lane, returns to the world of comedy | Tellyspotting 'Buttleflies' creator, Carla Lane, returns to the world of comedy On: April 23, 2013, By: Bill Young , In: Actors/Actresses , Comedy , No Comment Carla Lane, the creator of Bread, Butterflies and The Liver Birds, has decided to return to television following a self-imposed 17-year ‘retirement’. According to the Telegraph , her new sitcom will be set in Liverpool, which was the setting for many of her most popular comedies. Since retiring, Lane has spent years running an animal sanctuary in West Sussex and has long been a strong supporter of animal rights. “I’ve started writing again now,” Lane said. “My mind is working on an idea. I’ve been seriously thinking of writing more about something here in Liverpool. It’s where I was born and I understand it best of all.

It will be about a street, that I can tell you, because everything that happens in life happens in a Liverpool street.” We first met Lane in September of 2009 when we interviewed her as part of PBS’ Behind the Britcom: From Script to Screen program. She spoke of how she unknowingly crashed the predominantly male-dominated world of British comedy, shared with us her writing style and also her extreme fondness for actor, Geoffrey Palmer, whom she had not seen in over 10 years until we engineered their being together for the interview. Palmer starred as Ben Parkinson in Lane’s late 70’s, early 80’s series, Butterflies. Lane spoke at great length about being one of the early female pioneer writers of British situation comedy and how everything that she’s ever written stems from drama and sadness. She always began with a sad story, built a drama around the characters and then made it funny. Because of that there was some thought that it was tough for critics to wrap their heads around her life’s work. Even the BBC felt that there was something about that first Butterflies script that was just ‘not quite right’. Let’s hope both critics and the BBC will wrap their heads around her next project. Related Posts

Question: Which Liverpool born writer penned the comedy series Butterflies?
Answer: Carla Lane